Month: September 2019

Hi!!
Wow – yesterday’s twilight market went fabulously!
So many people bought soap!!
This makes me so happy – mostly because it means I can justify making a whole heap more!! I will concentrate on getting a lot of stock ready to sell for Christmas!
And guess what muffin forgot to take her camera?? I am so sad. The display looked beautiful! Sharon lent me her soap displaying stuff that she used at markets which was awesome.
Jeff sold some of his gorgeous necklaces – he’s been cutting and polishing rocks and wrapping them in wire. So he was pleased!
Taking away roughly the non-soap sales, I estimate I sold between $200 and $250 worth of soap!

So – what am I up to now?? I did promise to tell you today.

After being forced onto the scales at the hospital the other week I’ve been panic hiking! haha
While trotting around the river track the other week I decided that I would get my act together and do the Overland Track before the paid season starts. (This saves me $200)
So – I get another raised eyebrow ‘look’ from Jeff.
But he has been a star, helping out with my lists and pack so I am all mostly organised to head off tomorrow.
Fiona is being the ‘Cousin of the Year’ by coming to get me at 6am tomorrow and hike with me the first part of my day. Jeff is on night shift, so I had to bid him a fond farewell tonight 🙁
He is scheduled to collect me Friday.

I need to do the 7 days in 6 so got to squeeze in a double somewhere. I am hoping I can do that tomorrow but its a huge day. Anyway, will play by ear and see how it goes.
I have been very sensible and hired a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) so if something goes completely pear shaped, I have a safety net.
The weather (which I have been watching) is going to be pretty good. Nothing close to what we’ve walked through before – but of course I am prepared for anything as things can change quick as wink up there!
I was completely prepared to pull out of the idea all together if a week of snow and blizzards was forecast. There is ‘confident’ and there is ‘stupid’
Mind you – going to miss our fire at night!

I’ve done some creative repacking today. Its a different kettle of fish having to carry the lot yourself. I have to have a tent in case of emergencies but I intend trying to get a spot in the huts. So I’ve been shaving off grams wherever I could. I am capable of carrying 18kgs but to be honest – I don’t want to.
I am a bit over 16kgs now with all but my last food that is in the fridge to put in tomorrow. The food will dwindle of course so things will get better over the week. The camera is the issue. 1.5kgs!! Thats with one short lens. Oh well. I am prepared to suck it up because I am NOT going without my camera!

So – I am massively excited to head out on a solo adventure! Only slightly anxious (just normal nerves) but I feel pretty confident, fit enough and strong enough. Having done it a few times already and knowing the track makes it less daunting than heading out into the unknown.

I haven’t told my parents yet – um… they are in China on a fabulous holiday so I didn’t want them to worry. I don’t think they are reading the blog while they are away 🙂
And if they do drop by – (Hi Mum and Dad!!) I am sure they will realise I have done some solid preparation for this and am being very sensible!
I am looking forward to seeing their photos as I am so jealous of them seeing the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army! How amazing!!

OK – I have to be up ridiculously early – like 5am
So I am off to bed.
Have a great week everyone and will hopefully be back in a week or so to regale you with some stories!
Cheers!

My new little patch of tulips is a delight. Its such a bit of bright random colour!

They will be over soon and other blossoms and spring flowers will take my attention, but for now, they are the prettiest things out there!

Got lots of things going on – put a BBQ together for Margies friend Chris this morning. Did some shopping and running about followed by a lap of the river track.

Got most things prepared for the twilight market which is on tomorrow night. I have my fingers crossed to sell some soap!

I’ve also been working hard at getting ready for an event on Sunday – but I will tell you about that on Saturday haha. Its consuming my mind and time a bit.

We got down to the coop tonight at dusk and finally did some wing clipping. Goodness… there was some flapping and squawking and general carrying on!! I’ve been wanting to do this for ages as I am sick of chasing chooks from where they are not supposed to be. I love them but I don’t want them digging up all my new plants and gardens.

I am also wrapping up the 10 day photo challenge that has now entered its 26th day!! 😀 Nothing new there… lucky my friend who does the scoring on his especially developed spreadsheets and I are not impatient. We just go with it.
We had 25 people join in – a few new faces this time too which was nice. Its all been tallied up, winners announced, extra stats being shared etc.
Its a nice little community and the photos that come in daily for it are so amazing.
We’ll take a break for a few months before thinking about setting up a new challenge. I think that one was the 11th one!

Things in the hothouse are going well… cucumber, zucchini, cos lettuce and one little marigold are all up

The snow peas and sweet peas in the outside gardens have also started popping up too!

And those big old plum trees have baby plums again!

Yum!

Thats it from me tonight!
Hope your week is going along well and you have some fantastic things planned for the weekend!
Cheers!

So… I find three chooks up by the house – scold them and get them to follow me back to their side of the yard.
Only to find this among the raspberries –

Eeek!
After a certain amount of ‘shooing’ I moved him (I think) up under the plum trees.

Cow and chooks all rather content so left them there to go share the good news with Jeff that we had a ‘slight problem’

Jeff had cleared a bit much near the fence where part of the tree has fallen on it… the cow took advantage.
Mind you… it was an impressive cross country event to get over the wires and through the timber to the raspberry patch!

We started by using one of our old gates to shore up the fence on the highway side as I wasn’t happy with the state of the wires and cows were poking their heads out a bit far for my liking.
Once that was secure, we both did synchronised shooing to get our bovine visitor back over with his friends.

(Who I am sure were a bit jealous as our grass is definitely greener!)
Then – more creative fencing.

So far so good – no cows in the yard today!

My niece Emma decided to call this one Lukus.
Lukus was still looking wistfully over to our side.
But he left us a present!
Organic fertiliser!!

Will be glad when this job is done and dusted!

Never a dull moment hey?
Hope your day involved less cow issues!!
Cheers!

Hello!!
I am keeping busy! Today spring is on and off again.
I put on the pack and did a double lap of the river track with 16kgs. Did ok too so I am feeling all positive about that. I did get rained on. Then sunned on… then hailed, then sun… etc. You get the picture.
Decided to attend to indoor activities for the rest of the day.

The day before yesterday I got to and finished digging up this patch to put the potatoes in.

Plenty of fat garden worms

The weeds slowed me up a bit but got there in the end

Its a smaller than usual patch… thinking about waiting a couple of weeks then putting in another patch in the duck yard garden. Just don’t really want to dig up that sticky clay, weed encrusted spot!!

Rocket happily going to seed again!

Garlic has a bit of yellow happening but overall I think they will be ok. Will give them another boost of something (worm wee?) soon.

Jeff had the fences down while working on the wood, so had to do a bit of chicken wrangling – they were having a lovely day extra free-ranging.

Yesterday I had another workshop – 4 people came along. We did battle the elements a bit which was a shame but still went well.

Anyway, these dishes won’t get done by themselves I suppose!
Going to put the fire on as well.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Cheers

Hello!
How is your week going? Nearly at the end of it again!
Yesterday I had a couple of people to do my workshop – a husband and wife.
They moved down from Queensland a short while ago and are getting the hang of a different climate! Lovely couple and it was a super afternoon.

Today Jeff and I did a lap of the river trail – this time I put my pack on and carried about 10kgs. It was no trouble so thats encouraging!!

This morning Sharon (soap lady) dropped by with a couple of buckets and we raided the garden 🙂
I was just sharing some of the excessive amounts of flowers we have as she is just starting to develop her area since they moved the goats and chooks out of the house yard haha!
Early next week I’ll be going up to visit her to raid her raspberry patch of new canes!

This afternoon after our walk, I got into the hothouse and planted a heap of seeds.
The ones I planted a week ago were cucumber, zucchini and cos lettuce. The cos is up and there are two tiny cucumber sprouts pushing their way up.
During the workshops I also planted sunflowers, basil and capsicum.
Today I planted about 6 different varieties of tomato, butternut pumpkin, golden nugget pumpkin, stevia, marigolds, eggplant, bee balm, cape gooseberry, plus more sunflowers which are a bit of an experiment in the toilet rolls.
Other veggies I will wait to direct sow when the weather is warmer.

I think I have started a bit later compared to other years but really – I don’t think its going to make a grand difference.

Oh – and today I industriously labelled everything – I didn’t last time and now I think I know the zucchini but I don’t quite remember which is which with the different cucumbers! Doh!
I did plant more apple cucumber and zucchini for a friend so maybe when they all sprout I can compare them and work it out!

Anyway – not sure the weather is going to be nice tomorrow – but I very much need to get the potatoes in!! I’ll be speed digging and prepping soon!

Hope you’ve had a lovely day
Cheers

Hello!!
I totally forgot to sort my photos and blog last night. I have no idea what I was doing. 😀
Anyway, today was a super spring day! Mostly blue skies. The wind was a bit chilly but a lot of my work today kept me pretty warm.
Actually I started the day with a B12 boost as I was beginning to slow up!

Thats not the ouch. The ouch is happening now- every time I am silly enough to stand up haha
Anyway, I really wanted to fill another raised bed – so I wheel-barrowed several loads over to tip in. (The way the yard is set up, I have to do a long round trip!!)
I then put more hay, bit of blood and bone and watered that in, then topped up the rest with the soil/compost.

Then I scavenged about and found enough strawberry plants to fill it! I am still trying to source new ones for the other deep raised bed.

Grow little strawberries – I am fanging for homemade strawberry ice cream again!

So… that job done, I moved on to the current wood mess and helped Jeff, who was cutting up everything in sight with the chainsaw.
I was stripping useful branches of the fluffy stuff and setting them aside and burning the rest.

No chance of lighting a match in the wind I thought, so I grabbed a big chunk of glowing embers from the house fire…

Eventually it all took off nicely!

In other garden news, the seedlings that we planted at the workshop look pathetic… lol. They’ll perk up. Most have little new leaves showing through

Pretty rapt to see the cos lettuce seedlings emerging already!

And the photos that I was going to share yesterday… I’ll share now.
Lots of pretty spring flowers starting to really make things more cheerful about here!

Lovely colour everywhere!
Anyway, going to take my aching self to bed – although first I have to extract Pip from his warm towel!! 🙁 I feel so mean!
Have a wonderful day!
Cheers!

Look at Tasmania behaving in the weather department for me for once! So proud!

I had my first Gardening Workshop for Beginners today with three lovely ladies from the local area.
I did have some more booked in but one lady called and had to postpone (family issue) and the other couple forgot! Oops! I should have sent everyone a quick reminder email but its all new so next time I will do that.

I think the day went really well! Its also given me the confidence to put it out there again and do another one if people are interested (which they seem to be)
We started with a quick chat then a fairly long garden tour.
I found that rather than standing or sitting about lecturing, most of the information I wanted to share was easily incorporated into the ‘tour’.
Talking about the soil, mulch, what to fill beds with, planting tips on certain veggies etc.
The ladies were full of questions which was awesome and shared stories of their own spaces and gardens.
Luckily because I have no set style, there are so many different garden beds and ideas on the go, so they got a really good look at lots of different approaches and seemed to really like my ‘no fuss’ attitude towards it all. I guess it makes it less daunting when you simplify things and don’t overthink everything.

After the tour, we sat for a cuppa and cake (of course)
That was nice and relaxing.
We then did some hands on planting. Seeds, seedlings and a row of potatoes.
I’ve sent them home with a ‘Garden Party Bag’ that had seeds, potatoes to plant, seedlings, some oregano I pulled up and some spring onions as I have LOTS.

Once everyone had gone, I packed up my stuff, came inside and excitedly talked Jeffs ear off about every detail. Poor Jeff… just off a nightshift. In the end he had to head back to bed… probably in self defence haha
Luckily one of my sisters called so I could blather on to her about it 😀

I think I might have a day off tomorrow!!
Mind you I owe myself two laps of the river track as I just couldn’t face going out late this afternoon.
I am now feeling a bit tired!

I hope your weekend is going splendidly!
Cheers

So excited to get my dirt. haha
Half mushroom compost and half topsoil. Now I can REALLY get going in the new beds!

Three barrow loads filled the shallow bed nicely. I have plans to use this one at my rescheduled gardening workshop on Saturday. (Too scared to look at weather updates haha)

I cleared part of this area out – started stacking wood back under the hothouse annex

This area will get a sensible revamp now that we know better what we are doing and what works best for us.

I forgot to take the ‘after’ shot for this yesterday. Jeff got in and whippersnippered the area. I have a lot of work to do to clear it and get something on top of all the grass to kill it and keep it at bay.

Tomorrow might be my last day as Lamb-Day-Care-Mother.
Frankie only got the one bottle from me today (yes there was a lot of heart rending bleating)
Fiona reckons she should be right for a feed in the morning and one in the late afternoon.

Poor Frankie was left to her own devices a lot today. Sharon and her husband Paul, dropped in. Sharon got in the garden to cuddle Frankie! So cute. Paul is going to take one of the big felled branches that will make great fence straining posts. We’ve decided on a barter of firewood – a different timber to the macrocarpa which is great as we need other stuff to burn it together.

Frankie is pretty good on her lead, so I took her for a walk all around the place. Pip (sitting at back door) was NOT impressed.
I don’t think the chooks were too happy either! I think white chook looked like she was going to jump at and peck Frankie! (The others just ran off, such wooses)

Anyway, we finished the day with a lap around the river (goodbye to another 6kms worth of choccie bikkies and ginger beer)
Then dinner… lots on the plate from our garden or local farms!
T-bone steaks, potato salad (with my bartered bacon and home grown spring onions) some asparagus, lettuce and rocket, corn from the freezer and pickled beetroot. Even the butter on the corn was home made (friend)
Always makes me feel a bit chuffed with a dinner like that!
(And probably means two river laps tomorrow)

So… I am full and I need to take my aching muscles off to bed!
Cheers!

Hello – A couple of the little short tulips are out!
Yesterday after another waistline reducing hike, we got stuck into the yard. It had been forever since we could mow – the grass has been so wet and heavy.

While Jeff was mowing I was running about raking up grass and moving wood

Today I am meant to be getting a truck load of topsoil/mushroom compost mix so I need this spot to dump it.

Need more pallets

Moving stuff about.

Will have to chat to cousin Jeff about more pallets! So much firewood!

Bit muscle sore this morning!
Can’t wait for my soil!
Cheers!

Hello!
Another productive day! Yay me.
These two beds weren’t nearly as problematic to level and put into place!

And with a bit of careful shuffling about I got the cardboard under the bed edges without throwing the whole thing off.

And ew… I found a flat mouse – maggots and all! (Apologies to anyone eating something nice when this appeared on screen)

Next, a nice first layer of straw. I sprinkled with blood and bone and watered them in a bit.

Its still a little hard to get a sense of the inside bit but its getting better. I dug and moved a lot of dirt around and by the end of the day it was looking pretty good and easier to visualise what happens next.

I was going to cardboard the lot – sans path – and build up with topsoil, compost etc… but figured that will cost a fortune and is possibly more effort than I want to expend.
I’ll top up the raised beds with a topsoil and mushroom compost mix, but the middle bit approach a bit differently. Still cardboard. Otherwise I will be fighting weeds from now until the end of time.
I’ll top with a lot of straw as a mulch, but anywhere I am planting something I’ll cut a bit of a hole in the cardboard, dig in compost and plant the seedling or plant. Over time I will continually add in organic matter.
Still planning on putting in a herb spiral.
Now thinking of using some of the macrocarpa logs to line a path and different areas of the garden where the height varies. Its hard to explain. But I am NOT levelling this plot. There is about 3-4ft difference between the highest corner to the lowest.
Anyway. I am sure it will work out 🙂

Need to pick up more big screws to finish the last raised bed.

Looks like my tulips will be out soon!

This morning after Frankie arrived, I slipped down to the river to do a lap. That’s 6km of choc chip bikkies gone from my bottom. 😀
Unhappily had to get on the scales at the hospital yesterday and I really wished I hadn’t.
Winter has taken its toll and I need to step up and get moving and lose those extra kilos pronto!

No more baking.
Oh well. It was fun.

Hope your week is going along well!
Cheers!